Norwegian Police Seize Domain Name For Linking To Sites Offering Popcorn Time

from the turtles-all-the-way-down dept

Over the last couple of years, the increasing popularity of the open source streaming software Popcorn Time has turned into one of the film industry's biggest nightmares. Not just because it's free, but also because it provides an extremely easy-to-use service. The fact that it is open source -- and therefore essentially impossible to eradicate -- just makes things worse. As part of the film industry's attack on Popcorn Time, a UK judge was persuaded a year ago to order a group of web sites to be blocked purely on the grounds that they were distributing the Popcorn Time software. That was the first step down a slippery slope, and it seems that the second step has now been taken in Norway. A post on TorrentFreak reports that the Popcorn-Time.no domain name has been seized by the police there:

In a public statement the Norwegian police and prosecution unit notes that the domain is believed to be complicit in criminal copyright infringement by linking to third party content.

"The Norwegian domain popcorn-time.no helps electronic publication by linking to other domains where the required software can be downloaded. In addition, the Norwegian popcorn-time.no domain posted information, user manuals and news updates," the police states.

Yes, providing information, and linking to a site that allows the Popcorn Time software to be downloaded, is now enough to get a site closed down, in Norway at least. It can only be a matter of time before a domain is seized somewhere because it dares to commit the terrible crime of linking to a site that points to other online locations where Popcorn Time is available. After that, it's turtles all the way down.